A Glossary of Warmongering

by
Paul de Rooij

Dissident Voice
March 13, 2003

“War
is Obsolete”

-- Anatol Rapoport

The
propaganda leading up to wars debases language.In an effort to counter the inevitable prostitution of language,
and to perhaps become aware of a different reality, a glossary of commonly
post-Gulf War abused terms is presented below.It is an analogous development to the “Glossary of Occupation”,
which was meant to clarify the abused terms found in the Israeli-centric
discourse.

There is one specific
limitation to this glossary; it only discusses terms generally abused in the
US-centric discourse.Now, Americans
don’t want to talk about what they have been doing to the Iraqis, and therefore
there is a tendency for there to be NO words to describe what they do.Americans have no interest in describing,
let alone coining terms for the Iraqi condition.For example, there are no words for the myriad cancer patients
who don’t have the requisite medicines.There are no words for the huge areas of Iraq polluted by depleted
uranium bombs, and so on.Similarly,
the media discourse has no words to describe the Iraqi condition because it has
adopted a US-centric point of reference.For this reason, defining terms in a glossary is not satisfactory; it
only looks at the glaring problems, the instances where there is a descriptive
word.

Abused Terms

Translation

Collateral damage

Civilians killed – mentioned after the war.Issue not arising before a war, and all
references to civilians killed during “no-fly-zone bombing runs” are
vigorously denied.

When you hear: “Accidental deaths caused by a bomb” ponder
what Joan Baez said during her trip to Vietnam: “there is no such thing as an
accidental bomb”.

Cost of war

Diversion from profits of war.People moan about costs, but don’t
look at the profits.Who cares about
a few bucks here and there, just look at the profits gushing forth in a
year’s time.If the second UN resolution
passes, then get others to pay for the war.Remember Japan was forced to pay $15bn to cover the expenses of the
first Gulf War.France and Germany
may be shaken down in a similar fashion this time around.

“And consider too the sheer, unadorned hubris of men like
Wolfowitz and his assistants.Asked
to testify to a largely somnolent Congress about the war’s consequences and
costs they are allowed to escape without giving any concrete answers, which
effectively dismisses the evidence of the army chief of staff who has spoken
of a military occupation force of 400,000 troops for 10 years at a cost of
almost a trillion dollars.”

Democracy

A useful dictatorship of the remaining banana republic.“… once big powers start to dream of
regime change -- a process already begun by the Perles and Wolfowitzs of this
country -- there is simply no end in sight. Isn’t it outrageous that people
of such a dubious caliber actually go on blathering about bringing democracy,
modernization, and liberalization to the Middle East?God knows that the area needs it, as so
many Arab and Muslim intellectuals and ordinary people have said over and
over. But who appointed these characters as agents of progress anyway?And what entitles them to pontificate in
so shameless a way when there are already so many injustices and abuses in
their own country to be remedied?It’s particularly galling that Perle, about as unqualified a person as
it is imaginable to be on any subject touching on democracy and justice,
should have been an election adviser to Netanyahu's extreme right-wing
government during the period 1996-9, in which he counseled the renegade
Israeli to scrap any and all peace attempts, to annex the West Bank and Gaza,
and try to get rid of as many Palestinians as possible.This man now talks about bringing
democracy to the Middle East, and does so without provoking the slightest
objection from any of the media pundits who politely (abjectly) quiz him on
national television.”

“Democracy traduced and betrayed, democracy celebrated but
in fact humiliated and trampled on by a tiny group of men who have simply
taken charge of this republic as if it were nothing more than, what, an Arab
country?It is right to ask who is in
charge since clearly the people of the United States are not properly
represented by the war this administration is about to loose on a world
already beleaguered by too much misery and poverty to endure more.”

Depleted uranium aka DU ammo

“Under the economic embargo imposed by the United Nations
Security Council, now in its 14th year, Iraq is denied equipment and
expertise to decontaminate its battlefields from the 1991 Gulf War.

Professor Doug Rokke, the US Army physicist responsible
for cleaning up Kuwait, told me: ‘I am like many people in southern
Iraq.I have 5,000 times the
recommended level of radiation in my body.Most of my team are now dead. We face an issue to be confronted by
people in the West, those with a sense of right and wrong: first, the
decision by the US and Britain to use a weapon of mass destruction: depleted
uranium.When a tank fired its
shells, each round carried over 4,500g of solid uranium. What happened in the
Gulf was a form of nuclear warfare.’

In 1991, a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority document
reported that if 8 per cent of the depleted uranium fired in the Gulf War was
inhaled, it could cause ‘500,000 potential deaths’.In the promised attack on Iraq, the United States will again
use depleted uranium, and so will Britain, regardless of its denials.”

Justification to reject large proportion of Iraqi
requests for imports.

“…While food and medicines are technically exempt, the
Sanctions Committee has frequently vetoed and delayed requests for baby food,
agricultural equipment, heart and cancer drugs, oxygen tents, X-ray
machines.Sixteen heart and lung
machines were put ‘on hold’ because they contained computer chips.A fleet of ambulances was held up because
their equipment included vacuum flasks, which keep medical supplies cold;
vacuum flasks are designated ‘dual use’ by the Sanctions Committee, meaning
they could possibly be used in weapons manufacture.Cleaning materials, such as chlorine, are ‘dual use’, […] it
seems, considering the frequency of their appearance on the list of ‘holds’.

As of October 2001, 1,010 contracts for humanitarian
supplies, worth $3.85bn, were ‘on hold’ by the Sanctions Committee.They included items related to food,
health, water and sanitation, agriculture and education.This has now risen to goods worth more than
$5bn.This is rarely reported in the
West.”

[NB: this is a reprinted chapter from a book published
before SCR1409]

Since SCR1409 (14 May 2002), the Sanctions Committee only deliberates on
items on the Goods Review List. The vast majority of goods have always been
given import licenses, but often one or two components being held up and
would scupper the effectiveness of the permitted imports (e.g., if essential
tech components of a water treatment plant are held up, then the percentage
of holds is less relevant than their nature).

Evidence

Any rotten factoid to prove Iraq is evil.An unfinished PhD thesis written by a
graduate student was used to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction.Most documents used as
evidence date from 1991 – hardly relevant in the current context.No attempt was made to cover up the plagiarism
or the deceit.

Failure to comply

Foregone conclusion: Iraq will never be able to live up
to the US’s high standards.US
tactics: force Iraq to do something that will most likely lead to an Iraqi
rejection.If Iraq complies
nonetheless, then change the standards or objective.No matter what it does, “Saddam has failed
to comply, over and over and over again.”

Freedom fries

the US House of Representatives cafeteria's new name
for french fries; (ditto french toast).Turkey may misbehave too, and then we’ll be eating Liberty
sandwiches.Who needs fiction with so
many clowns around?

Gulf syndrome

Gulf War veterans who were victims of US chemical or
nuclear weapons.All efforts by
the US and UK Defense establishments were made to stall investigations into the
causes of this syndrome afflicting thousands of veterans – about 6% of
veterans.The likeliest cause is
immune system damage due to exposure to the radioactivity emanating from
depleted uranium weapons.Other
weapons systems are also thought to have caused serious disorders.Will the weapons causing this syndrome be
proscribed during the next war?Answer:
No.

A cause for a disease that is not usually discussed because one may possibly
wonder what happened to the Iraqi people.

Gulf War II

US-Iraq War.

Iraqi Opposition

Iraqi
opportunists on the US payroll.The head of this group, Mr.
Chalabi, was on the run from Jordanian law because of a massive fraud
perpetrated there.He has since been
magically pardoned.

Justification for war

Lies.There are many reasons: Oil, arms industry, deflect attention from
political scandals, deflect attention from nose-diving economy, Israel [oops,
can’t mention this one], protect the hegemony of the US dollar, create
another arms race…Of course, these reasons
are too crass, and must instead refer to the threat of WMD or making Iraq
safe for democracy.

Moral Case

The morality
thing.

“[Another] thing
hasn’t been reassuring.That was his
[Blair] seeming to discover a week ago, after some months of ardent
campaigning and presumably reflecting on Iraq, that there was a moral case he
could make -- presumably about the right thing to do.It was about possible or probable effects
on Iraqis themselves of leaving Saddam in power.That raises a question.What kind of case did Mr. Blair think he was making in connection with
the war before then?”

It is no secret that the US plans extensive use of chemical
agents to “neutralize” the enemy.Never mind that this is in breach of Chemical Biological Warfare
treaties.If Iraq were to possess,
let alone use, such weapons then it would be chastised for using weapons of
mass destruction.In the hands of the
US military, this is another matter.

Ample supplies of CS and stinging gases have been produced
for the US military.Once these gases
are spread, then can people run away?If not, then it could count as a war crime.

“I would not hesitate to state that the spraying of CS
from the air – which is an action entirely impossible to control – and the
imposition of a curfew after its wide use, should be thought of as a war
crime.”

-- Prof. Israel Shahak, AIC, Jan. 5, 1991

New Europe

The neo-vassals.

European
governments willing to subvert democracy to play second fiddle to the
Americans.

“What I say to
France and Germany - and all my other European Union colleagues - is take
care.Because just as America helps
to define and influence our politics, so what we do in Europe helps to define
and influence American politics.We
will reap a whirlwind if we push the US into a unilateralist position.”-- UK (New Europe) Foreign Minister, Jack
Straw.A poodle’s argument: Is he
saying that if we don’t play along with the US, then it may carry on its
unilateralist tendencies without European participation?The fact that the US is undermining
post-war legal framework and 30+ multilateral agreements should be the basis
to shunt the US.The US already
has taken a unilateralist position – Europe will not change this into
“multilateral” by sycophantically coddling up to it.Europe is the principal countervailing
power to the US, but it is a role which some don’t want it to assume.

No fly zone

Unilateral demarcation
imposed by the US. The “no fly zone” has no legal basis, and
was never approved by the UN.

“I made two trips
last month into the ‘no-fly zone’ created by the U.S. with Britain and France
in southern Iraq. Actually it would be better named the ‘only we fly’
zone or the ‘we bomb’ zone. ‘We’ refers to the United States who does
almost all of the flying and bombing (France pulled out years ago, and
Britain is largely a nominal participant).”

--Thorne Anderson,
journalism professor and photojournalist

Nothing against the Iraqi people

We’ll massacre them, but it is not personal.
If the strategy is to “shock and awe”, then the interests of the Iraqi people
can hardly be expected to be taken into account.

“I read recently a statement by a Pentagon official about
the impending war on Iraq: ‘There will not be a safe place in Baghdad.’Well, that is interesting.Five million people live in Baghdad…‘There will not be a safe place in
Baghdad.’I thought you were only
going to bomb military targets, then there should be safe places where there
are no military targets.No, ‘there
will be no safe place in Baghdad.’ ”

-- Howard Zinn, speech given at New School University,
Feb. 2003

Oil

America’s Oil – of course!

The Marines used to fight to keep the American banana
companies safe.Doesn’t it sound a
bit more glamorous to have the Marines fight to keep America’s oil safe?Just wait, these folks will get the
Exxon-Mobil medal for valor.

Old Europe

France and Germany.If you aren’t with the US, then it will conjure deprecating
statements.“France is no longer our
ally”, “At a political level, Donald Rumsfeld was making it brutally clear to
Europeans that the sole superpower will not pay much attention to what they
think”…

Poodle, aka English poodle.Long tradition of British prime ministers to
ingratiate themselves to the Americans.Prime Minister Thatcher established a precedent and was called a “lap
dog”, although less kind commentators insisted she was a lap bitch.

Preemptive War;

aka: preemptive defense.

A doctrine that ratifies war without cause, without end.

“… [if] the US wages a war against Iraq, then it will be
violating one of the most basic principles of the UN Charter, not just a
Security Council resolution, but the UN Charter. [The UN Charter] makes it
clear that it is not legal, it is not legitimate, it is not acceptable to go
to war against another country unless you have been attacked.You can only engage in war if it is for
self-defense.You can say whatever
you want about Iraq […] but Iraq has not presently attacked or threatened
anybody.Unless you think you ought
to attack a country because some day it may threaten you.Well, that is a prescription for endless
violence.”

-- Howard Zinn, speech given at New School University,
Feb. 2003

Regime

US Enemy du jour.Bush eloquently stated: “you are either with us or against us.”If you are with America, then you are a
democracy.If a country is not sure,
then the country is demoted to a regime.

NB: the dictionary definition of regime implies no
negative connotation.

Regime change

Region change.

The real objective of the warmongers is to redraw maps and
alter the power configuration of the entire region.

A rationale for war proffered early on, but thought too
crass to sell the war.It was quickly
replaced by the “he has weapons of mass destruction” rationale.

Saddam

Personalizing the enemy.

“Powell also personalized the alleged Iraqi
prevarication.Instead of highlighting
Iraqi mendacity, he always sought to personalize it as “Saddam’s lies”.This construct suggests that the US is only
after Saddam, and that “one bullet” would do the trick as Ari Fleischer
suggested some months ago.However,
at the same time that the US is demonizing Saddam Hussein as an individual,
it has been made abundantly clear that the war against Iraq is going to be
massive and devastating.If Powell
really was only going after Saddam Hussein, then the current war would seem
to be unnecessary – a mere assassination is needed.Instead, the war that is being prepared will certainly harm
millions of people in the area.This
is an admission that Powell would not like to make – millions of people
around the world would object.A
rather transparent propaganda ploy was used to present the conflict as
focusing on one demon – thus diminishing the implications of the horrors that
actually await the region.”

The US instigated sanctions implemented via the UN.The sanctions have made of Iraq, a modern
developed society before the war, into a country rivaling Congo in terms of
socio-economic statistics.

In response to a question about the effects of sanctions
where an estimated 500,000 Iraqis died due to its impact, former Secretary of
State, Madeleine Albright, famously said: “I think this is a very hard
choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it.”

Denying Iraq replacement parts to fix its water sanitation
and purification systems is a form of bacteriological warfare.Contaminated water is the main contributor
to massive increase in child mortality post Gulf War.NB: the US-dominated UN sanctions program
has not allowed the repair and rebuilding of these systems.At the same time that water borne diseases
stalk the population, the US denies Iraq access to important medicines.

Hey, this can’t happen anymore, now we have smart
sanctions!

Security Council Resolution

UN-sponsored declaration of war.Resolution crafted so that the guaranteed
outcome is one suitable to the US, in this case war.It turns the purpose of the UN – to avoid
wars – on its head.

Shock & awe

Mass murder.

“… the indiscriminate murder of civilians.”

-- Chris Hedges, Democracy Now, Feb. 27, 2003

“A recent statement by Pentagon official: ‘the
psychological destruction of the enemy’s will to fight’.That was the kind of language used to
justify the bombing of Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg and other civilian
areas.That was the language used in
Vietnam to justify the bombing of villages.The objective is to destroy the morale of these people.They use words like ‘shock and awe’.It sounds like terrorism to me.”

-- Howard Zinn, speech given at New School University,
Feb. 2003

Smart weapons

Yet another murder implement.These weapons are only so smart as the
people that order their launch, and that makes it “at most as smart as
Bush”.This is hardly reassuring.

Video feeds are the main improvement in the newest generation weapons.Improving the video show generated by
these weapons was seemingly considered of utmost importance.These weapons should be better known as
smart multimedia weapons.

Softening up Iraq

The war already started.

Twelve year long campaign of relentless bombing of
Iraq.Supposedly, most targets were
air defense systems threatening “coalition” airplanes.In reality, a useful area for all sorts of
training exercises utilizing both live and dummy bombs.Concrete-filled bombs have been thrown in
civilian areas, including schools.

Iraq is expected to disarm while at the same time the US
is “softening up” Iraq.

Stability in the region; aka making the area safe for
democracy

Making the area safe for “our” and Israeli interests.Not necessarily in that order.

Terrorist linkage

Demonizing an opponent.

Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, but strenuous efforts
are made to make the linkage.“Saddam
funds Hamas”, “a suspected Al Qaeda operative went for medical treatment
in Baghdad”, …, that is about it.

NB: The number of Iraqis involved in 9-11 = zero.

UN

A moribund organization meant to either do what the
Americans tell it to do or else it is expected to shut up.

UN inspections

A meant-to-fail futile exercise.Threatening war with a massive build-up, and
expecting full disarmament compliance and prying by a hostile UN inspection
team is contradictory.No statement
by Hans Blix has been issued on the continued bombing of Iraqi positions
while the inspections were supposed to be going on.

UN Resolutions

Power projections.Rules only meant to work when the US wants them to.Israel has ignored 64 UN resolutions (with
US support), yet this is not a problem.But of course, the UN resolutions were written referent to another
chapter of the UN Charter!(chapter
VI as opposed to chapter VII)Ah,
these tricky lawyers.

Voila Moment

Military wishful thinking.

“At the Pentagon
they call it the Voila Moment.That’s
when Iraqi soldiers and civilians, with bombs raining down on Baghdad,
suddenly scratch their heads and say to themselves: ‘These bombs aren't
really meant to kill me and my family, they are meant to free us from an evil
dictator!’ At that point, they thank Uncle Sam, lower their weapons, abandon
their posts, and rise up against Saddam Hussein. Voila!”

Argument leveled against the anti-war movement.It doesn’t mean that we have to massacre
them to save them.

“Mr. Blair says we can attack Iraq because if we don't,
Saddam will be free to do terrible things to his own people. This is about as
alarming as an argument can get.There is no parity between our doing something with the dead certainty
of killing and maiming thousands, and not doing it with only some probability
that some people will suffer. Saddam may not have changed, but his world sure
has.”

Despite the fact that reputable sources indicate that
Iraqi chemical, bacteriological or nuclear capabilities are not a threat, it
serves as a useful excuse for war.

Yes, Iraq at some point had chemical and bacteriological
weapons. We know that because the
countries selling that technology were primarily the US and UK.When the weapons were sold, Iraq was our
bulwark against Iranian revolution.This rationale was quickly forgotten.